Yesterday’s post was a bit serious. So I thought I’d be a little silly today.
What are you willing to sacrifice to fit in a run? OK this sounds quite dramatic right? Some might say they sacrifice blood, sweat and tears while trying to train for a marathon. Me? Oh, I just sacrifice clean hair. 🙂
#BigHairDontCare
Let me explain…
Until the sun starts to rise at 6:30am (which won’t be until the end of February!) I’ve decided my Tuesday runs will be on the treadmill at the gym near my office during my lunch break.
New York Sports Club
We all know how spoiled Duncan is so I can’t bear to dip into his walking time in the morning with a clear conscience. And running in the dark, icy, cold is just not appealing to me.
My Tuesday run will only be 3 or 4 miles and even at a relaxed pace IÂ can fit it in during my lunch break. Well, all except for the extra 10 minutes it would take to wash my hair and layer in the multiple frizz reducing, curl enhancing product. So yesterday, after running 3 miles at the gym, I showered without washing my hair! And you know what? I’m TOTALLY OK with that. I’m willing to sacrifice clean hair!
3 miles done
Today’s a rest day!
We take our rest day seriously!
What are your tips to make your exercise time most efficient? What are you willing to sacrifice?
I was planning on running yesterday morning but still have some soreness on the bottom of my foot. It’s almost gone but with a half marathon 12 days from now I decided to err on the side of caution and go to the gym at lunch for a short cross training session of the rowing machine and bike.
So I packed up my gym stuff in this handy dandy 2011 NYC marathon recovery bag. 🙂 swag in action.
13 minutes on the rower followed by a killer 20 min on the stair master. I was drenched with sweat. And actually felt good about the decision to cross train.
This morning I got up super early to take the doodle to our local park. With me being away for a week and then having a busy long weekend I hadn’t taken him in over 2 weeks. He was so happy to reclaim his territory. And I was happy to see the beginning signs of autumn.
pretty soon the green will turn orange and red and yellow
On our way to my favorite place. Gonna lift my leg on everything!
Tomorrow if my foot is ok I am going to try for an 8-10 mile run. If it isn’t ok I’ll wait until the weekend. Last chance long run opportunity before the Staten Island half marathon. I’m not really worried about finishing. I just want to work on keeping a consistent effort for 2 hours or more. Lately I have been peetering out to quickly. Mostly because I am not accepting that my average pace has slowed since being injured and I start out too fast.
I told you that my favorite month is October because it’s my birthday month AND i love Autumn. But I forgot to share with you another reason it’s an important month to me. It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. First I wanted to give a shout out to my dear friend Nicole!
She’s a survivor! Hard to believe that with a newborn she went through a double mastectomy, chemo and reconstruction all while continuing to work and care for her family. (She owns a pet-sitting company and I met her when Duncan was just a puppy and I was looking for a dog walker.) Her diagnosis really shook me. After my husband died so young from cancer I sort of went through this irrational notion that I paid my dues and nobody close to me would ever be sick again. So when my 36 year old friend was faced with cancer I was knocked back into reality and reminded that I’m not excused from from it. I also wanted to share this link. Meggan is a runner I met last year while on that photo shoot in Charleston, SC for the Dicks Sporting Goods Every Runner Has a Reason campaign. She has been battling breast cancer for 6 years. I didn’t even know it at first. She’s so amazingly strong and brave. I’m wearing my Power in Pink shirt today to kick off Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Power in Pink!
I’m almost done with my recap of day 2 of Ragnar Napa. It’ll probably be up tonight. Thanks for being patient. =)
I’m assuming most of my readership is female (well except for this guy). Are you up to date with your mammos? Do you do self-exams?Â
Do you acknowledge any awareness months?
I make a big deal in May for Melanoma Awareness Month as well as this month’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Funny thing happened today…I set out to the gym on my lunch break to tackle a 5 mile hill workout and from the first step I knew it wasn’t happening.
new carpet in the ladies’ locker room!
My legs felt like lead and I felt like the treadmill was lying to me as an 11 minute mile pace felt so hard to maintain. I was SO mad at myself! I wanted to just go back down to the locker room, change and head back to work. But I decided that I’d at least try running with minimal incline (.5) so that I could get the miles in. I am not lying when I tell you that I literally looked down at the “distance completed” screen so many times that I don’t think I ever went so far as a tenth of a mile without a glance.
3 boring miles. The trend lately seems to be my love of my training is on the decline (mental note: TAKE A BREAK!). When I finished the 3 miles I decided to walk slowly to cool down and check my phone for some distraction. That’s when I saw this on Twitter and just had to reply.
It completely changed my view of the failure. So much so that I turned that walk into a slightly faster walk….and then I raised the incline up to 8 and continued to walk….and then??? I started to RUN at that incline. I covered about a half mile of hill intervals!!!!
I ended up with 4.5 miles total (instead of the scheduled 5) and of course only half a mile of hill running, but that’s better than nothing, and better than just 3 flat miles. I was drenched by the time I finished. But better than that, my negative view of the workout came full circle and I walked out of the gym with a smile on my face. I came back to the office to feast on my healthy lunch.
pop chips, salad, egg, avocado and grapefruit
So that’s how you take a failure to succeed and turn it into a successful failure!Â
Question: Have you ever not wanted to work out and gone anyway only to leave with a smile on your face?
Do you remember that post exactly 2 weeks ago where I forgot some of my running essentials while doing a 3 mile speed workout at the gym?
Well today, I was back at the gym for a 4 mile interval workout and I’m happy to report I didn’t forget anything! I had my hair pulled back nicely and my sport ear buds securely in place and my workout was just perfect!
4 mile interval workout makes for a Sweaty Betty Sally
I was still feeling sore and achy from Sunday’s half marathon so I opted to keep all 8 of my half mile intervals about 30 seconds slower. Next time I do this workout I’ll start at 10:30 and drop down to 8:30 for my fastest interval. And I KNOW I can do it because today wasn’t super difficult. Although by the amount I sweat it might not appear that way =)
I wonder if it was my super healthy breakfast that gave me the energy to push through…
black coffee and peanut M&Ms….sweat out the small stuff sugar and caffeine
When I arrived at the gym I was giddy to see they decorated with a balloon arch just for me…
and then I realized it was for the Superbowl. Speaking of Superbowl, they have closed down Broadway north of 34th street (here in New York City) to create Superbowl Boulevard. It’s getting crazy. So many trailers and wires and contractors constructing lots of wild things. The police presence is significant. They even just installed this NYPD security camera right outside my office building. (I work right by the big Macy’s at Herald Square)
I got back to my desk and inhaled my lunch and made sure to log my workout in my calendar, on RunKeeper and cross it off the task list! AHHHHHH!!! Best feeling.
Here are a few pics that were taken of me from Sunday’s Fred Lebow Manhattan Half
happy but cold but happy and running and that means it’s all good
almost done • crossing the finish with Carey • enjoying a post run Gatorade slushy
If only I were rich because I love these pictures. But I can’t keep dropping $70 after each event. That would literally be over $1,000 a year on photos considering how many races I participate each year. I think I need to get a job with Marathonfoto. I actually felt bad for the photographers though on Sunday. They must have been so cold! One guy had a little camoflage fort (probably bought at a hunting or sporting store) and was sitting inside of it. It was awesome!
OK, off to conquer the world now that I ran. Hope you did something to make you feel invincible today too! Or at least I hope you had chocolate and coffee for breakfast.
Question: What workouts make you feel so strong and accomplished afterward? What workouts do nothing for you? What did you have for breakfast?
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